Cohen Called Lax In Vaccine

THOMAS D. WILLIAMSThe Hartford Courant

Six congressmen, including Connecticut's U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, say a congressional inquiry shows that Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen failed to carry out plans to ensure the safety of the anthrax vaccinations for all 2.4 million U.S. troops.

The representatives told Cohen in a letter that the Pentagon failed to meet four conditions Cohen set before the vaccine could be used to protect service members from biological warfare.

They were: supplemental testing to assure sterility, safety, potency and purity of the vaccine stockpile; a fully tracked immunization program; operational and communications plans to administer the vaccine and to inform military personnel about it; and a medical review by an independent expert.

James Turner, a spokesman for Cohen, said the secretary will not comment on the letter until he communicates to the congressmen.

But Turner said: ``It is a safe and effective vaccine. The secretary is confident that his four conditions were satisfactorily met and stands by his decision to go forward with the vaccination program.''

Shays is chairman of a government reform subcommittee that has been investigating the anthrax vaccination program. The letter made these critical conclusions about the Pentagon's handling of the shots, which have been given to more than 300,000 service members:

* There has been little or no testing of the vaccine's effectiveness in humans against anthrax spores, and little evidence to show the vaccine is effective against all strains of anthrax.

* Supplemental testing of the vaccine may not be an accurate measure of its effectiveness and safety, in light of federal inspections revealing problems in manufacturing the vaccine.

* There is little evidence of what kind of adverse reactions the shots cause, and other evidence shows that the Pentagon has recorded inaccurate rates of adverse reactions.

* The Pentagon has conceded that the vaccine can cause human reactions hazardous enough that it would be too expensive for the manufacturer to insure it.

* Some National Guard units have prevented those resigning from reporting they are doing so because of the mandatory vaccines, and others complaining about the vaccines have been threatened with poor evaluations.

Larry Halloran, an aide to Shays, said the Republican congressman believes strongly that Cohen has not stuck to his word on the conditions he required before the vaccine program began. ``They kind of cosmetically rolled right over them,'' Halloran said Thursday.

Eight congressmen are sponsoring a bill to halt anthrax inoculations until the vaccine is determined to be safe and effective. The legislation, authored by U.S. Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, a conservative Republican from New York, provides for a study of the vaccine by the National Institutes of Health and an inquiry by the U.S. General Accounting Office into the vaccine's use and its effect on the military.

``We are losing too many pilots. They are expensive to train,'' said Steven Boucher, a Gilman aide who helped draft the letter to Cohen. ``But we are losing a lot of other people too at a time when the military is already short of people. The congressman is worried this could have a serious impact on our [military] readiness.''

``We are concerned about what happens to people who have [health] problems from the vaccine, '' he said. ``We don't want to have a repeat of what happened to [sick] veterans after the gulf war who couldn't get help. This is a volunteer military that depends on trust to join and trust to stay on.''

U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., a North Carolina Republican, and two other members of Congress are also sponsoring an anthrax bill, which calls for making the vaccinations voluntary in the military.